Job 30 — NETB

30Verse 1“But now they mock me, those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much
to put with my sheep dogs.
^{Verse 2}Moreover, the strength of their hands –
what use was it to me?
Men whose strength had perished;
^{Verse 3}gaunt with want and hunger,
they would gnaw the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste.
^{Verse 4}By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes,
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
^{Verse 5}They were banished from the community –
people shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves –
^{Verse 6}so that they had to live
in the dry stream beds,
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
^{Verse 7}They brayed like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together under the nettles.
^{Verse 8}Sons of senseless and nameless people,
they were driven out of the land with whips.

Job’s Indignities

^{Verse 9}“And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword among them.
^{Verse 10}They detest me and maintain their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
^{Verse 11}Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me,
people throw off all restraint in my presence.
^{Verse 12}On my right the young rabble rise up;
they drive me from place to place,
and build up siege ramps against me.
^{Verse 13}They destroy my path;
they succeed in destroying me
without anyone assisting them.
^{Verse 14}They come in as through a wide breach;
amid the crash they come rolling in.
^{Verse 15}Terrors are turned loose on me;
they drive away my honor like the wind,
and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

Job’s Despondency

^{Verse 16}“And now my soul pours itself out within me;
days of suffering take hold of me.
^{Verse 17}Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never cease.
^{Verse 18}With great power God grasps my clothing;
he binds me like the collar of my tunic.
^{Verse 19}He has flung me into the mud,
and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.
^{Verse 20}I cry out to you, but you do not answer me;
I stand up, and you only look at me.
^{Verse 21}You have become cruel to me;
with the strength of your hand you attack me.
^{Verse 22}You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it;
you toss me about in the storm.
^{Verse 23}I know that you are bringing me to death,
to the meeting place for all the living.

The Contrast With the Past

^{Verse 24}“Surely one does not stretch out his hand
against a broken man
when he cries for help in his distress.
^{Verse 25}Have I not wept for the unfortunate?
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
^{Verse 26}But when I hoped for good, trouble came;
when I expected light, then darkness came.
^{Verse 27}My heart is in turmoil unceasingly;
the days of my affliction confront me.
^{Verse 28}I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.
^{Verse 29}I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
^{Verse 30}My skin has turned dark on me;
my body is hot with fever.
^{Verse 31}My harp is used for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.